If you’re not watching “The League,” or at the very least, if you don’t have the show in your Instant Netflix queue yet, then you don’t get to sit at the cool kids table. “It’s Always Sunny” and “Archer” tend to get most of the Internet attention when it comes to F/X shows, but it’s “The League” that — in its third season, at least — is the most consistently funny. It’s like an ensemble version of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” that just happens to revolve around a fantasy football league, though the premise is tertiary to the actual shenanigans. Also, never take fantasy football advice from anyone on the show. They’re is some kind of pansy 8-person league where everybody’s team is stacked with studs, and it’s a snake draft. Snake drafts are for amateurs.
Anyway, it’s an awesome show, which has featured guests appearances this season alone from Jeff Goldblum, Sarah Silverman, and Seth Rogen. And F/X yesterday had the good sense to renew show for another season, which means more Nick Kroll, and Nick Kroll is responsible for 30 percent of the sun’s power. FACT. And after the jump, I’m going to throw seven more “The League” connections at you that might just blow your mind.
1. Katie Aselton and Mark Duplass Are Married in Real Life: OK. This may not actually come as a shock to many of you. But, did you know that Aselton and Duplass are two of the most prominent members of the mumblecore movement in film? Mumblecore is a terrible, misleading name for an awesome independent genre of film: It’s basically improvised high concept films, and Mark and his brother, Jay, are kind of the Kings of Mumblecore (along with Lynn Shelton, who is like The Queen).
2. Katie Aselton is a Former Beauty Queen: Aselton is actually from my neck of the woods (Maine), and in 1995, she was Miss Teen Maine, as well as first runner up in Miss Teen America. She also attended Boston University, which is where I went to law school, but we never crossed paths, even though we were there around the same time. Otherwise, OBVIOUSLY we’d be married now and I’d be the star of “The League” and we’d have the cutest kids on the planet. Aselton also wrote, directed, and starred in a phenomenal mumblecore film with Dax Shepard called The Freebie, about a married couple who decide to give themselves one night away from marriage. Disaster ensues. It’s more heartbreaking than funny.
3. Mark Duplass: The Film Star: Most people know Duplass from “The League,” but in the indie film world, he’s kind of a big deal. He’s like the Brad Pitt of the SXSW Film Festival. Last year, he and his brother wrote and directed a movie called Cyrus, which starred Jonah Hill as a guy who had kind of a sexual obsession with his Mom, played by Marisa Tomei. It’s good, but very uncomfortable. But, my favorite Duplass film is Humpday, in which he stars with Joshua Leonard — that guy from Blair Witch Project — as two very straight best friends who decide, on a dare, to make a gay porn film together. All of these things are on Netflix Instant. Do yourself a favor and find them.
4. Nick Kroll: Everyone loves Nick Kroll thanks to the awesome character of Ruxin on “The League,” and because of an excellent turn on “Community” a couple of weeks ago. I have mixed feeling about Kroll, however, for two reasons: 1) He stole Joshua Malina’s role in the television world and I love Joshua Malina and 2) because Nick Kroll starred in seriously one of the worst sitcoms of the last decade, “Cavemen,” which was based on those annoying Geico commercials.
5. Jeff Schaffer: There’s a reason that “The League” is so similar in structure to “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The creator, Jeff Schaffer, was also a writer/producer/director on “Curb,” as well as “Seinfeld.” He also wrote the screenplay for Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat (which “Seinfeld” producer/writer Larry Charles directed), as well as the screenplays for Eurotrip and, of all things, The Cat in the Hat
6. Paul Scheer: Many of you probably knew Paul Scheer before “The League” as a member of the sketch comedy troupe “The Upright Citizens Brigade,” as well as his role as a creator/writer/star of “The Human Giant,” and as a writer of a couple of episodes of the brilliant Adult Swim series, “Children’s Hospital.” But, did you know that he’s also a regular on the children’s show, “Yo Gabba Gabba”? He and Jack McBrayer (from “30 Rock”) do regular “Knock Knock Joke” segments. The pop-culture connections on “Yo Gabba Gabba” are astounding, and probably deserve a separate post at some point.
7. Jonathan Lajoie: Jonathan Lajoie, who plays Taco, basically got discovered from YouTube videos, where he gained fame playing his own songs and making music videos, like the above video for “High as F**k.” Check it out; it’s hilarious.
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I like The League, but it is in no way on the same level as Archer or Always Sunny.
This is my favorite (NSFW) Lajoie music video [www.youtube.com]
“I can’t stick my fist in your childhood dreams”
…but it’s “The League” that — in its third season, at least — is the most consistently funny.
Nnnnope!
Nick Kroll might look like Josh Malina, but they are extremely dissimilar in personality and acting style.
Nick Kroll more than makes up for needing the Cavemen paycheck with the creation of Bobby Bottleservice.
I appreciate your love of Josh Malina.
Also I watched The Puffy Chair and The Freebie back to back one night while drinking and bored and now I don’t believe in love anymore.
There’s a video out there where Jon Lajoie sings in French, and oops my clothes just fell off.
Here it is, sitting right in my bookmarks!
[angryfrenchguy.com]
The League needs more Dirty Randy, El Cunado and Katie Aselton in lingerie.
EVERYONE POINT AND LAUGH AT THE HAMMER
Watching The Freebie was like sitting down to watch a wall you just painted dry, but instead the paint slowly slides off the walls.
Mumblecore sucks, sucks hard! I’ve tried to watch 2 films Duplass was involved in and couldn’t make it through either (Humpday and the terrible, terrible dreck called Cyrus). But The League RULEZ! Randy is truly disgusting!
The League is funny, but is not in the same league (wordplay!) as Archer, It Always Sunny…, and Louie.
The League is more consistently funny than IASIP, but more than Archer?!?! I dare say good sir, you are getting damn near to blasphemy.
I didn’t learn a goddamn thing. Well, Paul Scheer was on Yo Gabba Gabba. I learned that, but I don’t give a fuck about it, so here I am.
I liked Taco’s rapping on YouTube, but yeah what The Hammer said.
“is the most consistently funny.”
Must be why I haven’t touched any of the episode stacked up on my DVR. I can take Matt not being here, I cannot take outright falsehoods.
Go watch all of WTF Collective.
ComeONNNN Rafi spin-off!
Nick Kroll on Chidren’s Hospital = F***ing GOLD.
Mark Duplass was also in a band I listened to, which I didn’t know until I saw a video.
[www.youtube.com]
Maybe everyone knows it already, but I feel like the fact that the dude who plays Kevin was in the WTC on 9/11 is an interesting enough fact to make the list. But instead, you waste my time blaspheming Archer and talking to me about mumblecore.
Consistently funnier than Archer? I, and it seems most everyone else, gotta call shenanigans on that.
There was a brief stetch at the end of the first season when I remember thinking that The League was the funniest thing on TV that night- over Always Sunny and the NBC Thursday lineup. But overall the show isn’t on the level with Archer and Always Sunny- definitely not this season.
I think the two biggest problems The League has is the forced fantasy football jokes and Duplass’ character is just awful. They created a good character, the guy who’s into the league too much and doesn’t have anything else going for him- but then let some staffer from Maxim do the writing for him. Bro, he totally just shits all over his friends AND gets the girl.
The League is alright but not on the same consistency range as my recent poop.
Consistently funnier than Archer? No. At times so? Yes.
Consistently funnier than Always Sunny after season 3/4? Yes. The League has gone ahead and kicked Sunny down a peg as far as I’m concerned. The characters on the show are believable, even when they’re at their worst. Because we all have friends that we KNOW are just awful people that we probably shouldn’t be friends with, but we are.
It is a little odd that at this point in it’s run, the fantasy football elements are so corollary to everything else in the story. But that doesn’t push me away from the show. If the most objectively funny show ever to air on TV was called Surfin’ Dudes and never once mentioned surfing, I’d find it a little odd, but wouldn’t particularly give a shit if it were still funny.
I’m a big fan of what they’ve done with it, but Sunny needs to wrap.
@Chazz Didn’t we already do this once about the Pete character? Again, fuck that guy for always winning.
BTW, I found out the “sat on gum” thing isn’t as funny to most people at a bar than it is to me.
@heemoy- yeah, I pretty much shit on the Pete character whenever the League gets discussed here. It just bothers me because it seems like the writers who are otherwise so great should be able to see that he’s an awful character.
That’s because there IS no “Pete” character. I mean, Kevin is the married one, Ruxin is the sarcastic one, Andre is the naive one, and Taco is Taco. What is Pete?
I think Sunny’s bounced back this year while The League has slipped a little. There are times The League gets just a little too slapsticky and they always go too far out of their way to shoehorn a Taco song into it (less this year, admittedly).
@Lisa: like Chazz said, Pete is the guy who’s into the league too much and doesn’t have anything else going for him. Which is fine because that type of character exists but bad shit never happens to him. He is always getting the best of everyone and its annoying.
@Lisa – Pete is the one who was married to Leslie Bibb. The single douche who acts all smug and always gets the girl despite being a tool.
I stopped watching the the show a while back because it hasn’t earned the right for me to tolerate the behaviour of the characters, if that makes sense?
Compare The League to Sunny in the early seasons. The Sunny gang have always been awful people, but it was less exaggerated. It was always hinted at, like we still don’t know if Dennis rapes women, and that has been part of his character since season one. Granted, as the seasons have rolled by the Sunny gang have evolved into diabolical idiots, but it was earned.
The League just has terrible people, and very hit and miss jokes.
Nick Kroll also plays Stu on “The Life & Times of Tim,” perhaps the most underrated comedy on TV
I know who he IS, I just meant his character is not defined. We know what all the others do for a living (or don’t do, in Taco’s case) — what does Pete do? We’ve met members of their families — who’s in Pete’s family? We don’t know any of that. THAT’S what I meant.
@WittyPhrase:
A show can’t be “consistently funnier” than another “sometimes”.
@Actual Post:
I hate that I came here so late in the dogpile, but agreed with everyone’s protestations.
I disagree very much with that first paragraph. The League can be quite funny sometimes, but it isn’t consistently so, at all. Nor is it regularly funnier than Louie (not even close), Sunny (maybe once), Archer (not even close), or even Wilfred (close, but no banana). I do like Nick Kroll quite a bit, though, and Taco’s pretty amusing too, and they do some great stuff with guest stars on there, but overall the show’s firmly on the second tier of comedies, with Wilfred and 30 Rock and
I literally couldn’t make it through one episode of The League. That was during the first season however, and I hear it’s improved. More consistent than Sunny and Archer? When have those two shows ever been inconsistent?
I would still take Archer and Wilfred over this show as well, but definitely think its better than Always Sunny.
I thought mumblecore was the collective name for Bill Belichick sex tapes.
@ Lisa- I see what you’re saying. There was one episode where they dove into it a little, where basically Pete works in some meaningless office job and dicks around all day on the internet for fantasy football. His boss hated him and saw through his bs but of course right before he was fired he saved the boss’s boss from being stuck in an elevator – and therefore saved his job so as usual Pete the character that no one is rooting for comes out ahead.
Obviously you have to suspend disbelief a good deal with a 22 minute comedy but here’s how that conversation goes at every company ever:
Boss’s Boss: Are you firing the guy who saved me from that elevator?
Boss: Yes. He’s wildly imcompetent, deceitful, and insubordinate.
Boss’s Boss: Go ahead and fire him.
I love the League, but everyone here has been pretty spot on with their criticisms. Though Pete got put in his place by Eliza Dushku last episode
I really like The League, but it seems like they often shoehorn Jonathan Lajoie’s songs into episodes, as if it’s part of his contract. They’ve done it far less this season than they did in the first two seasons, but it’s kind of obvious and annoying. Otherwise, this is a pretty terrific show about a bunch of assholes who can really barely call themselves friends.
League needs more of that hot twat Ruxin’s married to
Nick Kroll is also on the HBO series “The Life and Times of Tim” which is DEFINITELY worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.
Pete’s Little Tiny Erect Dick is a example of an awesome Taco song and a burn on Pete, who also had the Fear Boner that episode.
ARCHER GREAT! LEAGUE NOT AS
Love the show…hate the list. One of biggest reasons I love the show is most of it isnt written, but ad libbed. I’m sure they do multiple takes, but situations are created and they go with the flow.
I refuse to believe a show this funny came from Mumblecore and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, respectively, because “The League” is about mercilessly ripping the shit out of absolutely everything both are all about, namely self-absorption and white people problems.
SOMETHINGS YOU CAN’T UNSEE BRO! wish there was a rafi point on this list. But, cool list.
manwall.com
Great show
The League is seriously..the best comedy on TV right now. hands down. “murder boner” omg Raffi.. more Raffi.
Jeff
[www.theflopallin.com]
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I don’t care what anyone says, Cavemen and Kroll were funny as f*ck. Much funnier than The Office is now.
Everyone hated Cavemen before it even aired, just because it was based on a commercial (even though it was a commercial everyone loved). I saw one episode before it was cancelled, and it was pretty damn funny (in no small part due to Nick Kroll).